During a particularly low tide event on Norfolk Beach mud flats very near to our home on Coochiemudlo Island, some four to five years ago, I found a metal object that I thought was part of a ship’s rigging.

The item is brass or bronze and has coral growth which indicates that it had been in the ocean for a considerable time. Being a bowerbird, I brought it home and used it as decoration on a Buddha statue in my garden.

About two years ago the ABC was doing a promo for an upcoming series called ‘Enslaved’. Someone held up an object the same as mine and exclaimed: “You could buy and sell slaves with these.” That got me going.

What I had found is called a Manilla.

Tens of millions of these objects were made primarily for the West African slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries. They were used as a form of currency to buy and trade slaves. All of the major European powers were involved and at the time, was a lucrative trade that trafficked millions of people.

Part of my research involved contacting the Queensland Museum, and from their response to my many questions, there are no reports of them being used in the Pacific Blackbirding trade. I put a question to them: “Is it possible that it was carried by Matthew Flinders?”

The response was: “Maybe. Metal was a desirable trade good and many of the British sailors and people of status would have known about Manillas”.

I wish I could remember exactly where it was that I found it as I believe there could be more. I will be out there on those very low-tide events, trying to solve the mystery of the Manilla.

Watch the program ‘Enslaved’ on the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s iview even if you only see Episode 1. The story is compelling, confronting, and well-narrated.